This invention relates to a metallized body of crystalline material and to a method of fabricating. More specifically, the present invention relates to a diamond material that has been metallized and to the method for metallization of a diamond material.
In the past, it was difficult to metallize a crystalline diamond material so that the metallization would adhere to the material. In the prior art, sputtering techniques have been used for the metallization of crystalline material such as diamonds, but such techniques had several distinct disadvantages. Sputtering a metal onto a diamond surface, in the prior art, required the diamond being placed in an evacuated sputtering system in which the diamond was first sputter etched and then metallized. Both steps had to be performed consecutively in the evacuated sputtering system. The vacuum system could not be broken between process steps since to assure adhesion of the metal onto the diamond it is essential that the diamond surface be cleaned as a result of the sputter etching. In addition, since prior art metallization of a diamond material must be performed in a sealed sputtering system, the entire surface of the diamond is covered with a metallic layer, because it is not convenient to introduce a selective mask into the vacuum system to form a metallic pattern.